Blocking mobile adverts just became that little bit easier

Networks could drop 'The Bomb' and block ads by default

For those mobile operators wanting to block adverts and prevent them reaching subscribers' screens (all in the name of reducing bandwidth usage and saving customers’ money of course) Israeli tech company Shine can make that happen.

“There is a lot of grey in there between advertisers and publishers,” said Roi Carthy, the company’s chief marketing officer, who also told El Reg that the technology could block individual advertising aggregators such as Doubleclick and Admob.

Among the investors in Shine is Horizon Ventures, which is run by Asia’s richest person Li Ka-shing, who also controls the Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate, owners of Three.

Carthy was not prepared to tell us which mobile networks Shine was working with, although he did reveal the technology was integrated in some networks and ready to be rolled out, although nowhere had yet made it available to subscribers.

The plan is that the operator will institute a block only when customers asked for it, so as a default the blocking would be off.

However, switching it on would save the customer money, as advertising – and in particular video – was a heavy user of bandwidth.

Shine began over three years ago as an anti-virus company, but found that its understanding of cyber-security made it well placed to understand advertising technology.

One “European wireless carrier” told the Financial Times [paywall] that it was also considering a more aggressive approach, which it called “The Bomb”. This would switch the blocking on by default, targeting Google, which the mobile networks want to encourage to share revenue. ®